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Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Open Fire! - FoW arrives

Well, finally my willpower gave in. I've been managing to resist Flames of War for ages. Not needing a new scale, relatively unfamiliar topic, concentrating on other games and money all seemed like good reasons. Then they brought out the Open Fire starter box which dragged my interest back in, but still I resisted. But in the last couple of visits to our local gaming club have had Arabiansquire playing 40k and myself hanging casually around a bit. The first time was OK (managed an enjoyable game of the Walking Dead boardgame) but the second had me watching between the 40k game and a Flames of War game, giving me the opportunity to ask questions and have a look at the FoW books. So eventually the recommendations and the desire to increase my chances of actually playing a game had me up to the local FLGS here in Livingston.

So what do I think of my purchase? Well the box is certainly full, and it's all a bit overwhelming truth be told. This is my first "mass battle" game so the amount of small figures (remember I am a 28mm Skirmish man usually) and referring to the diagrams of team and unit organisation are a bit swamping. Adding to that is that all the figures from both sides are on 2 sprues of the same colour, mixed on the same sprue. There is a good organisation sheet, however, with good photo's of the figures.

The tank kits all look OK, and painting trepidations aside will be fine.

The "Cardboard Terrain" is a slight stretch. A couple of of sheets of push out terrain tiles is what you get (small woods, walls and buildings). They do have the cover bonus' rules printed on them, so will be useful for a beginner like me, and are better than nothing.

Overall I'm happy with the box contents, overawed by the "new area"-ness of it all. I think I'll have to clip off the figures and get them teamed up as per the handy actual size pictures for squad organisation to really muster a starting point. After that it's time to hit the web. I don't even now whether to put the figures on the bases first or do the lolly stick painting technique (which will delay any play be weeks!).